The need to continually improve the efficiency and precision with which telephone callers may specify and be connected to a desired called party is as old as the telephone system itself. It is well known that long before technology was developed for direct dialing and automated switching, telephone lines were connected to a manual exchange, where live operators plugged cords in and out of jacks to make connections at the voice request of the caller. As telephone usage became more widespread, the use of numeric direct dialing technology eventually replaced the need for live operators to make physical connections. A fundamental problem with numeric direct dialing, however, is that the caller has to know, and subsequently remember, the telephone number of the party desired to be called. In fact, one distinct advantage of the antiquated manual exchange system was that all the caller had to do was speak the name of the called party and the operator could make the connection based on no more than that instruction.
Various technologies are known in the art that are directed to assist a caller reaching a called party with reduced reliance on already knowing a specific number. Some of these technologies are described below:
800 and Vanity Numbers
Digit-dialed 800, or INWATS, has been around for several decades. The data base call processing method for the 800 number using out of band signaling has enhanced the functionality of INWATS with flexible band assignment, making it more economical and efficient. It has also made possible a single portable 800 number that could be used by a subscribing entity with multiple locations, and for terminating calls to be distributed based on variables such as their origination point, time of day, day of week, etc. INWATS has been a commercially successful and valuable tool for businesses and other entities who use it to encourage calls from customers, prospects or constituents.
These benefits of the 800 number are nonetheless still subject to the problem of potential customers remembering the 800 number to initiate a call. Vanity numbers (phone numbers that spell a name or phrase) are often used by businesses to facilitate recall of their telephone numbers by customers, and thus are in high demand. By using the alpha characters assigned to each number on a telephone dial or keypad, vanity numbers enable a customer to recall an easily remembered word or phrase rather than a number, which may be more difficult to remember.
Numbers for 800 service are assigned to businesses on a first-come, first-serve basis. Vanity numbers have proven to be very effective in increasing telephone business for their owners. While they are in high demand, however, good vanity numbers are limited in supply. Vanity numbers constrain the subscriber to seven character words or phrases. Due to the common sequence of consonants and vowels needed to create a seven letter word or phrase, very few vanity numbers are left to meet current and future demand. Further, as the universe of available vanity numbers diminishes, they cease to be particularly useful as an aide-memoir as they become less descriptive of the name or the nature of the business owning the number. This lack of vanity number availability also places businesses owning a good vanity number somewhat serendipitously at a considerable competitive advantage over emerging businesses.
Voice Activated Dialing
Prior art voice activated dialing utilizes voice recognition technology to allow the caller to subscribe to a service and then be able to call other parties by speaking a key word or phrase into their receiver such as the called party's name, title or a location (e.g., “call Mike,” “call doctor,” or “call home.”) This can be done as soon as the phone is off hook, but may also be activated via an access or activation number or code. Typically a stand alone voice recognition processor is located in a local central office near the subscriber as an adjunct to the switch. A unique file is set up for each calling subscriber who is at liberty to populate it with key words of the subscriber's choosing. Except for system maintenance, no one but the subscriber has access and control of the calling file in the data base. While most current applications of voice activated dialing involve a data base housed in a local central office, there are also technologies that place this function either in the customer's telephone equipment, or in a central open access network location.
While existing voice dialing inventions are perhaps appealing for their technical novelty, they provide little more utility than the programmable speed dialing keys that may be found on many telephones. Both features merely eliminate the need for the caller to dial the entire number manually when calling within a small personalized universe of frequently-called numbers, most of which the caller usually knows by heart anyway. Both generally reduce the time for manual dialing. In most cases, however, voice activated dialing is more costly than speed dialing to the user. Voice activated dialing does add utility over speed dialing for situations where hands need to be free such as while driving, or where the user may be visually or physically impaired. It may provide access to more numbers than is typical for most phone equipment with speed dialing capabilities. It is expected, however, that the demand for voice activated dialing will be limited to a small number of subscribers willing to pay for the service.
Further, since the originating subscriber defines the words and phrases that will be used to identify called parties, and since use is expected to involve only a small portion of the population, the prior art application of voice activated dialing is of little value to called parties such as businesses interested in increasing telephone traffic by making it easier for prospects to call them.
Moreover, existing voice activated dialing services are generally limited in the number of terminating locations that can be reached, based on the set of names per subscriber. Currently, a typical subscriber data file has a limited capacity of approximately 60 names for initiating voice activated calls. The number of businesses that will benefit from open access network control voice activated dialing exceeds this current 60 name per subscriber capacity within existing technology. In all probability, only a small fraction of a business's market or potential customers will actually be subscribed to voice activated dialing. In fact, most businesses will hope to generate business from customer prospects who, even if they are voice activated dialing subscribers, will most likely not have programmed the business's name into their personal voice dialing file. Businesses will want to be in control of making their name accessible to their entire market. Thus, unless voice activated dialing is made available to all potential customers, it is of little value to businesses trying to attract telephone commerce.
Voice Activated 1+ Information
Voice activated 1+ Information allows a caller to use voice activated dialing to initiate a call to live operator for directory assistance. Once the operator has provided the number, the call can be automatically set up without the caller having to dial the number manually. While providing value in situations where hands need to be free, such as while driving, this service is of no special value to commercial terminating parties wishing to increase telephone traffic. First, the caller must pay for the service, and normally at a price per call greatly in excess of manual dialing because of the cost of live operator intervention. Callers therefore tend to use the service only when there is no other alternative. Second, 1+ Information is generally a localized service, and operators normally require callers to make additional long distance calls to other LATAs when the terminating party is not found in the region covered by their service. This increases the cost to the caller. Third, the caller is often required to know the area code in which the terminating party may be found before either local or long distance 1+ Information operators can help. Clearly, a service in which one number, advantageously toll-free, may be called to enable subsequent connection by voice activated dialing would improve on 1+ Information services.
Universal Number Access
Many commercial organizations and businesses have stores or offices located in multiple geographic locations to be near the customers they serve. It is well known in the art that such businesses often use 800 or similar toll-free numbers to attract calls to a central location, at which point the call is then routed to the business location nearest the caller. The businesses must pay for the costs associated with the initial 800 call that was toll-free to the caller, and then the cost of routing and then connecting to the local location. Further, the toll-free number is susceptible to all the problems of being identified and remembered by the caller as set forth above in the section discussing vanity numbers. It would be clearly advantageous and cost-effective to such businesses to be able to promote a single universal number that could automatically direct calls to the business location nearest the originating point of the call without having to route the call through a central location.